GORDON STRACHAN last night threw down an Auld Enemy gauntlet to Roy Hodgson and warned him: This is NO friendly.

The English boss has vowed to wrap his stars in cotton wool for the first Scotland v England clash in 14 years, promising club managers the likes of Wayne Rooney and Jack Wilshere will only play 45 minutes.

But Strachan has refused to guarantee anything to gaffers asking him for the same deal.

Wednesday’s Wembley clash is the first meeting between the sides since the Euro 2000 play-offs, when Don Hutchison’s winner in London failed to overturn a 2-0 first leg defeat.

And Strachan said: “The fans want us to win – they’re paying £65 or whatever for a ticket. They want to see players playing in a competitive style. They want me to take it as a competitive game.

“So I don’t see it as a friendly. I see it as a competitive game we want to win so I can’t promise any manager that I’ll take his player off after 45 minutes.

“I don’t like this friendly thing where you change 10 players at half-time or six come off after X minutes. When that happens the game seems to die for everybody. What Roy does with his squad is entirely up to him. He has a plan to adhere to.

“But some managers have asked me – Championship ones because they have games ahead – ‘Can you tell me how long you’re going to play them?’

“I replied: ‘No.’ If you promise somebody that you will take them off after 45 minutes, then the centre-half they’re playing with might get injured and it changes the perspective of the game.

“You play the game of football. It’s the same with footballers. They want to play.

“When the game starts – any game, even friendlies – they just want to play.

“I can’t think, ‘We’re 1-0 up and I’m going to take him off after 55 minutes.’

“I don’t want to do that. We’re leading. I want to win. The player wants to win.”

He insisted: “When players arrive at the stadium and the fans are in there it has nothing to do with resting players or who’s not there. It’s about the players who ARE playing.

England boss Roy Hodgson (Image: Ben Stansall/AFP/GettyImages)

“They have a more talented group of players than us. If you put them up for sale I don’t think there’s any doubt there would be a rush for most of them.

“Once you get to the game, no matter what has happened beforehand, it will look after itself. Trust me.

“But there’s a lot going on in English football at the moment with players and transfers. Roy has to look after his players in the way he thinks best.”

The focus of England’s attention will be on star striker Rooney and his readiness after a summer of discontent at Manchester United.

But the Scotland boss is under no illusion that if the Old Trafford ace plays in the Wembley friendly he’ll be a force to be reckoned with.

Rooney has been ruled out of today’s Community Shield clash with Wigan with a shoulder injury but Strachan said: “He has been one of the best players in the country for 10 years.

“He still is one of the best. If United say they’ll sell him tomorrow there would be a heck of a queue to sign him.

“He’s a terrific player, a terrific team-mate and has a real hunger for the game.

“So it would be handy if Rooney was caught up in some sort of transfer turmoil come midweek!”

Not that Strachan has an inferiority complex over facing a superior force.

He did it as boss of Celtic against the likes of Barcelona and Manchester United and said: “I was never scared. You do your planning, the closer you get to the game and the longer you work with your players you think, ‘Yeah, we can do something here’.

“It will be similar when I meet the boys on Sunday. I’ll look at it and go, ‘Yeah, we have good players here as well’.

“Then on the night when the game starts you think, ‘Yeah, we can win this’.”

Strachan’s plans have been designed to cope with the blistering pace in England’s ranks but he’s also confident the fact most of his players have started their season – when their top-flight stars haven’t kicked a ball in anger – can give Scotland an edge.

And he would love to build on his side’s morale-boosting win over fourth-ranked Croatia back in June.

The Scotland boss said: “It would be really good.

“When you play in this game and win you feel happy for everyone who is there.

“The supporters, your family – you do it for other people rather than yourself.

“I could go through the phrases and say, ‘A good performance will do us’ – well, no, a win is what we are after.

“We will probably be more attack-minded than we were in Croatia. I am going to put it in the players’ minds that when we get the ball we must think about how we get at England’s back four.”